Numerous streaming media services are available. For example, web sites such as those provided by Yahoo!, CNN, ABC, NBC, and the like provide streaming video content. During playback of a streaming media item, users often desire to skip over portions of the streaming media item or to skip ahead to a desired portion of the media item. However, streaming media items are streamed linearly. As such, when a user skips ahead, the portion of the streaming media item to which the user has skipped may not be available depending on the amount of the streaming media item that has been buffered. For example, a user may be viewing a streaming video for which the upcoming five minutes have been buffered. Thus, if the user skips ahead to a desired location in the streaming media item beyond the five minutes that have been buffered, playback is interrupted and a delay is incurred in order to request, receive, and buffer a sufficient amount of the streaming media item to enable playback of the streaming media starting at the desired location. Thus, there is a need for a system and method that enables a user to skip ahead in a streaming media item without experiencing any substantial interruption in playback or delay.